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- Submitted by: jeffcat70
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- Category: History
- Date Submitted: 05/07/2011 02:52 PM
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African Origin of Humankind
Part I
The first humankind was an African. From there, all people of the planet earth were created by migration, genetic divergence, and constant mixing with other groups. The latest scientific discovery in Kenya of a fossil revealed the complexity on the evolution of humankind, which was more than three million years old. In the following paragraphs I will provide the evidence and show how it fits into the idea of human origin.
Many discoveries around the world in the department of paleontology exposed the complex evolution of the humankind. During my research I found that according to the magazine “Nature,” a fossil found in Kenya was an approximately 3.5 million year old skull. Originally, it was thought that the human linkage had been traced back to an ancestral genus called the Australopithecines (the “Southern Ape”). As of now, Lucy who was discovered in Ethiopia by D.C Johanson, was the most famous out of all discoveries. The pre-humans lived in the area of the savannahs and rift Valley of Africa more than three million years ago. Scientists believe they are closer to being modern humans than apes. However, new evidence suggests that the Australopithecus family was not the only hominid species to have been around at this time.
In the 1987 edition of the journal “Nature,” three scientists at the University of California found out that all humans on earth have a common ancestor who they believed lived in Africa. Her name was “Eve.” According to the journal, the three scientists believed that “Eve” was actually the most recent common ancestor through matrilineal descent of all human living today. The scientists back up their evidence of saying that people can trace some of their genetic heritage through their mother back to “Eve”. The scientists were able to prove their theory by checking into the cells of living people and analyzing short loops of genetic code knows as mitochondrial DNA, or mtDNA for...
Part I
The first humankind was an African. From there, all people of the planet earth were created by migration, genetic divergence, and constant mixing with other groups. The latest scientific discovery in Kenya of a fossil revealed the complexity on the evolution of humankind, which was more than three million years old. In the following paragraphs I will provide the evidence and show how it fits into the idea of human origin.
Many discoveries around the world in the department of paleontology exposed the complex evolution of the humankind. During my research I found that according to the magazine “Nature,” a fossil found in Kenya was an approximately 3.5 million year old skull. Originally, it was thought that the human linkage had been traced back to an ancestral genus called the Australopithecines (the “Southern Ape”). As of now, Lucy who was discovered in Ethiopia by D.C Johanson, was the most famous out of all discoveries. The pre-humans lived in the area of the savannahs and rift Valley of Africa more than three million years ago. Scientists believe they are closer to being modern humans than apes. However, new evidence suggests that the Australopithecus family was not the only hominid species to have been around at this time.
In the 1987 edition of the journal “Nature,” three scientists at the University of California found out that all humans on earth have a common ancestor who they believed lived in Africa. Her name was “Eve.” According to the journal, the three scientists believed that “Eve” was actually the most recent common ancestor through matrilineal descent of all human living today. The scientists back up their evidence of saying that people can trace some of their genetic heritage through their mother back to “Eve”. The scientists were able to prove their theory by checking into the cells of living people and analyzing short loops of genetic code knows as mitochondrial DNA, or mtDNA for...